Where I write about running, marathons, Home Ownership, DIY projects, marriage, raising twins, growing up Polish and other Mysteries of Life

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Once in a While, We all need Sombody to Talk to

It's been an interesting week. On Sunday we found not one but two houses we like that are not where we would like them to be (more on that later). We also finally went to Mariano's and restocked our fridge. Mariano's has been our new go-to grocery store even over A&G because of the combination of abundant organic food and very competitive prices.

because Fuck Whole Foods!

For the first time that I can recall, CARA canceled the Saturday LR because of the heat. Of course. I had just sent this message to my pace group:

I haven’t heard any talk of canceling this week’s run but keep in mind that any week, it’s always on the table if the weather looks to be unsafe. The site coordinators will decide that morning, based on weather reports, whether to delay or cancel the run if conditions are unsafe, and that decision is generally made at the last minute at our starting location. Because the decision is made at the last possible minute – in order to improve the chances of completing that LR -- there is no mechanism in place to cancel the run before everyone wakes up and arrives at the site. I know that kinda sucks and we’d all rather sleep in but at least it gives us the best chance of getting our run in early. It’s all about you and putting you in the best position to successfully complete your LR each week.

and it seemed like literally two minutes after that email went out, we got the email from our Site Leader that the run was canceled.

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So the point is that SHB and I met for a run on Sunday because we knew everyone from CARA would overwhelm the Montrose Site. I really like running with SHB. I'm not so sure about listening to her stories, especially since she 1) repeats the same ones over and over without realizing that I probably know the rough outline better than she does and 2) provides an extraneous level of detail that often seems like dramatic foreshadowing but in reality is unnecessary detail, and 3) when I tell a story, I barely get two minutes of her precious time and attention before she changes it back to her.

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On Monday Nightingale and I met after work for our half mile swim at the Portage Park Pool during adult lap swim. Then we came home and grilled the steaks we bought. Or maybe the steaks were Tuesday, I don't really remember. This time of year we grill as often as possible.

On Thursday we joined friends for a picnic/concert in Millennium Park and also a group therapy session for Tracy and Hanna. Tracy has reached what I call Stage Two of her post-addiction to Fitz. Stage One was realizing he wasn't going to change, EVER, and she needed to break away. He's like her opium so she couldn't just cut him out cold turkey. However, now that she has had six months in the city with half as many nights not spent with him as spent with him, the Fitz-opium has left her blood stream and she's seeing how he really took advantage of her all these years. Stage Two is Anger and it's not pretty.
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So we found two houses that we absolutely love. Both houses have most if not all of our Must-Have items and many of our Nice-to-Have items. Neither place has the high walkability of Portage or even Jefferson Park that we are seeking. House1 is bigger and better but in a more unknown neighborhood. House2 only pales to House1 because we saw House1 first.

House2 has a better commute for us. It is also the safer choice school and eco-socially. To be sure, House1 is not in the ghetto or anything. House2 just has had better luck in maintaining a higher middle class.

According to the story, House1 was built by a builder -- we've seen a few of these and you can tell when someone went the extra mile as this builder clear did -- who designed and built this house with the expectation that it was going to be his Forever Home. This house in the suburbs or Green Zone is worth $700K easy. The fact that I'm not linking to it or outing the neighborhood should tell you that we are actually considering it.

The thing that sucks most for me about this is I don't have anyone to really sound this out with. Most of my friends either aren't in a situation to buy yet or are like SHB and wouldn't know these areas of town because they aren't "in the city". If Fitz weren't in his own little woe is me world, his only advice on house buying would be his broken record line that there are plenty of fixer upper foreclosures out there for much less.